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kidnap
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Meaning: This verb could refer to a short sleep by a child, but it actually means to forcibly capture a person (child or adult) and hold them for ransom. You hijack vehicles but kidnap people.

Notes: This is a verb that doubles up on its final consonants before most suffixes: kidnaps but kidnapped, kidnapping, and kidnapper. In our eternal quest for more specificity, we have expanded kidnap into dognap, catnap (despite the resulting ambiguities), and various other types of napping.

In Play: The basic use of this Good Word is obvious: "The kidnappers were dismayed to discover that they had kidnapped the wrong person." However, we have to use our imaginations to find metaphorical applications: "Be careful talking around Owen Cash; he kidnaps the ideas of others and passes them on as his own."

Word History: Today's word is very straightforward: it comes from the phrase "to nap (or nab) a kid". It may surprise you to know that it was first used in the 17th century. At that time, it meant to shanghai (another interesting word) someone from England for work or slavery in America. Nap in this sense would seem to be related to nab, though the exact connection is unclear.

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